Police station mural honours Indigenous

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on September 24, 2022.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

The boardroom at the Medicine Hat police headquarters has a new mural honouring Indigenous culture and a new name provided in a ceremony on Friday.

“Aahkoinnimaan ni,” pronounced phonetically as “awe-queen-ih-mach-knee” means in Cree “The Sacred Pipe.”

It was selected by Kainai Nation Elder Charlie Fox, who revealed the name during a two-hour ceremony alluding to the process of coming together, laying down past grudges and “becoming brothers,” according to interpretation.

“The Miywasin Friendship Centre commends the MHPS for their steadfast commitment to reconciliation with Medicine Hat’s urban Indigenous community,” according to JoLynn Parenteau, an official with the centre and member of the MHPS chief’s advisory committee.

The change is the result of focus on relationship building laid out in the service’s Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plan laid out in 2021.

“The service is honoured to provide this gesture of recognition and acknowledgement of Indigenous peoples and the land we share,” said interim police chief Joe West.

The mural depicts a scene of the Saamis Archaeological site and wider Seven Persons Coulee, created by local Métis artist Ray-Al Hochman.

Four separate pieces of artwork in the room each signify “coming together” expressed in languages of Blackfoot, Michif, Ojibwe and Plains Cree groups, which all claim connection to land in the region.

The number of Medicine Hat residents with Indigenous heritage is 3,225, according to the 2021 federal census, equal to about five per cent of the local population.

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